Early Speech Perception Test Outcome in Children with Severe Sensorineural Hearing Loss with Unilateral Cochlear Implants Alone versus Bimodal Stimulation

Bilateral stimulation of the auditory system has clear advantages over unilateral hearing. Hearing-impaired children are, therefore, generally fitted with hearing aids in both ears so that they can have the benefits of binaural hearing. Children who use acochlear implant in one ear and no acoustic stimulation in the opposite ear are at a definite disadvantage. This study was undertaken to determine the advantages of bimodal stimulation in pediatric population especially in terms of speech recognition. This study comprised of 30 children between 3 and 6 years of age with profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss with cochlear implant in one ear and fitted with digital hearing aid in non-implanted ear. Speech recognition performance was compared in unilateral cochlear implant only and with bimodal hearing stimulation in the same set of children. A statistically significant difference was found between speech reception scores in children with a unilateral cochlear implant only and those with a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the non implanted ear in quiet surroundings. It is suggested that the use of bimodal fitting be considered as an effective management method to obtain the advantage of binaural hearing in children who undergo unilateral cochlear implantation.